This blog presents information about the 62 men named on the WW1 memorial from St James Church, Toxteth.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Lieutenant Thomas Stanley Reay PS/3182

There were 5 Thomas Reays in the CWGC database, only one had the middle initial S and he was from Liverpool.

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photo from entry in Liverpool's Scroll of Fame

Thomas Stanley Reay was born on 3rd February 1894 and baptised in St James Church on 1st April the same year. The baptism record (below) shows that his parents were Thomas and Elizabeth Thornley Reay. They lived at 27 Mount Street and Thomas Snr was a baker. This photograph is of Thomas Senior circa 1881.

image source ancestry.co.uk

Thomas's mother was formerly Elizabeth Thornley Stephenson.

The 1901 census shows the family still lived at 27 Mount Street, Thomas Snr was now a baker shopkeeper and an employer. Thomas Stanley has been enumerated as Stanley Reay and he was the youngest of their 5 children on the census return.

In the 1911 census Thomas Stanley again used his middle name (and transcribed by ancestry.co.uk as Manley) Aged 17, he was a theological student. He was living at 18 Cumberland Street with his parents and 3 siblings.

The census also shows us that Thomas Snr was at this time a flour dealer and shop keeper and employer. It also shows that the Reay family had 5 surviving children out of 8 and their house had 8 rooms for 6 people.

The following text is from Liverpool Scroll of Fame Part I: commissioned officers which was published in 1920, unfortunately no further volumes were published due to lack of demand.

Lieutenant Thomas
Stanley Reay,

10th Battalion,

Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

The Church sustained a severe deprivation by the loss of so
many young men who had ordinarily been destined for its ministry. Lieutenant
Thomas Stanley Reay was especially well-equipped for his chosen vocation by
reason both of his upright and manly character and his intellectual gifts. For some
years he had looked forward to ordination as the entry to that fuller service
to which he aspired. But then the war intervened and he went forth immediately
as a Christian warrior, moved by that high conscientiousness that always
distinguished him, and ready to give his life for the freedom of England.

He was the youngest son of Mr and Mrs Thomas Reay and he
lived with them at 18 Cumberland Avenue,
SeftonPark.
His father was a prominent member of St James Church, Toxteth and had been
vicar’s warden during his son’s boyhood. Stanley
was thus brought into close touch with the vicar, and had spent his holidays
with the Rev. Mr Watt, Vicar of St Dunstan’s Earle
Road, after the latter had gone to Peebles, that
clergyman having developed a very strong friendship with him.

Up to the age of seventeen his education was at Liverpool
Institute, and it was in furtherance of his desire to seek Holy Orders that he
then entered SelwynCollege,
Cambridge. Not only was assiduous
in his studies, but he brought the same keenness and relish into the sporting
fields, where he was an athlete of some versatility. He was a member of various
teams connected with his College, and was particularly devoted to rowing.
Having gained his colours in 1914 he rowed for his college in the Lent races of
that year.

Such were his happy “varsity” days and he was nearing the
time when, in accordance with his long cherished hopes, he would begin his
clerical career, when the call to arms resounded through Europe.
For him that call had an inevitable and immediate reply. He had no hesitation
about following the hard pathway of duty. Straight away he joined the Public
School Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers – he was one of the original members –
and went to France
with them in November, 1915.So
gallantly did he conduct himself that after a few months of active service he
was sent home to train for a commission, and in due course he was gazetted to
the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry.

Lieutenant Reay went abroad once more in October, 1916, and
for eighteen further months he was engaged in a great deal of hard fighting on
the Western Front. No officer could have had a clearer or more manly appreciation
of his duty as the holder of a commission of His Majesty. No doubt it is to
this that one can attribute the extraordinary faith of his men in his
leadership. No once, but many times, they confessed that they felt a certain
amount of additional security when following him, and his invariable
thoughtfulness for them won their unbounded respect. Even when he had been
wounded – so seriously that he died the next day – his concern was for those
subordinates who had also been injured.

It happened on the
28th February, 1918. Lieutenant Reay was showing a small
party of men what work they had to do, when the enemy sent over several shells,
which fell quite near to where the group was standing, and he and three others
were wounded. Stretcher-bearers went out at once, and the young officer allowed
them to carry him so far, then insisting that the other cases should be brought
in and their injuries bandaged. Reay talked quite cheerfully to one of his
chums, sent back messages praising the work of the stretcher-bearers, and
professed to be suffering no pain. Thus the news of his death came as a shock,
and it was also an occasion of sincere grief on the part of those many friends,
military and civilian, who knew so well his sterling worth.

No one, indeed, who knew anything about Reay would doubt
that, had he survived the perils of warfare and fulfilled his vocation, he
would have been a fine example of manly Christianity. Sport, as we have shown
already, appealed to him in an exceptional way, and he always loved any other
activity that stimulated and invigorated either the mind or the body. In his
outlook on life there was nothing in the least degree mean or cramping. He was
in some measure an idealist, but he was also intensely practical, and his was invariably
a happy and sunny disposition. Thus was he a typical Englishman – an Englishman
who lived with a robust ardour and geniality of spirit and who died with that
uncomplaining fortitude that befitted such a true son of the Empire.

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Thomas Stanley Reay's medal card (below) shows that he was a private in the 21st Royal Fusiliers and became a Lieutenant in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. He The first entered the theatre of war France 14.11.15 and died of wounds 1/3/18. His father's name and address are on the reverse.

The card shows his regimental number to be PS/3182.
Thanks to information on The Long Long Trail, I believe the prefix denotes it was a public schools Battalion which suggests he was still a theological student when he enlisted.

The following information from The Long Long Trail may explain why he changed regiment and rank.

21st (Service) Battalion (4th Public Schools)Formed at Epsom on 11 September 1914 by the Public Schools and University Men's Force.26 June 1915 : attached to 98th Brigade, 33rd Division.Landed in France in November 1915.27 February 1916 : transferred to GHQ; disbanded on 24 April 1916 with many of the men being commissioned as officers.

source: ancestry.co.uk

UK Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919

Name:

Thomas Stanley Reay

Death Date:

1 Mar 1918

Rank:

Lieutenant

Regiment:

Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry

Battalion:

3rd Battalion

Type of Casualty:

Died of wounds

Comments:

Att 10 B

the comments section indicates that he was attached to the 10th Battalion.

Funded by the

The St James Memorial Project

This is my hobby which is slowly taking over all my free time!
I love history and researching and I am particularly fascinated by the First World War and how it affected the people of Liverpool. I believe very strongly that War Memorials should be protected and cherished and shared so that the sacrifices made by our local communities are never forgotten.